it's like 2 am as im writing this rn
The MBT-31... a cool lil' tank, I can say that much.
It's certainly not my first tank I've ever made, nor was it the first time you've seen it. But it served an important purpose: to act as a baseplate for all other tanks I'll be making in the future. As a result it's something cool and simple: An American-style, mid-Cold War-era main battle tank. Before all composite armor, geometric armor, and all that jazz.
Design Inspiration
Being a mid-cold war vehicle, it's fairly obvious where I pulled the most design inspiration from. My main problem was how I'll get the best references.
There's plenty of photos online of the M48 Patton III and M60 tanks. But most pictures are captured by tourists looking for snapshots to say "oh look, here's a cool tank," and lack much of the detail I need to see more of how the tank works; suspension system, engine exhaust pipes, that thing in the back that keeps the tank barrel in-place when parked, etc.
So for a while, I just did the best I could, trying to skim and rake the corners of the internet for those juicy details.
At least, until, my father dragged me along for a family trip to California last year. Along the way, we stopped in Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, home of Old Ironsides.
Wouldn't you believe my luck — there was both an M60 and an M48A2 lying around...?!
There's apparently an armored museum on-base that I never knew of. What's even more interesting is that they keep preserved vehicles in front of the museum to display... AND MORE behind the building, in some random parking lot, that aren't on display too! It's just like a random parking lot of tanks, APCs, IFVs, and even some Soviet T-34 that they apparently have!
Why are they all in the open like this — especially the non-display ones? Well, for one... All the vehicles are decommissioned, and I'm willing to bet they're morbidly broken atop of that, so there's no reason for any sane man to try to steal one. Not to mention that we're still in the middle of an Army base... Not really the most ideal spot to go around stealing hulks of metal.
But for my purposes, having these things out in the open, without anyone to stop me, was practically a haven for reference photos! We still had to be in California on a time table, but I took as many as I could. Lo and behold, I finally got all the pictures of the niche areas of the tank I otherwise wouldn't have gotten!
Headlights and headlamps...
Suspension systems...
Tail lights...
And whatever this thing is called. I know it holds the cannon when the tank is parked, and the turret is turned rearward, I just dunno what they're called. Maybe if there's an M60 technical manual lying around in the Army PUBS website, I'll take a look.
But with all that, I finally had what I needed to make the tank! And make the tank I did.
There's honestly not alot that I'd like to comment on with the actual modeling of the tank. I just took some design liberties here and there — Most of the design decisions were made with the constraints of CSG. I learned Roblox Studio's solid modelling suite before anything else, and have yet to learn other 3D software like Blender. So I've just made the tank the best I could with the tools I knew to use.
The only place where I really experimented was the upper and lower glacis of the hull, and having them rounded like an M48 rather than flat like an M60. It certainly took alot of creativity, but I eventually got it down.
Lore Inspiration
With modeling out of the way, it was time to storywrite lore about the thing.
I mean... optimally you would make the the lore alongside the vehicle. Ideally you'd make the lore before the vehicle, so you'd know how environmental needs would influence vehicle design. But in this case I kinda jumped the gun — I wanted a basic cold war-style tank now and I wanted to focus on lore once I'm done.
First things first, this isn't my first tank. The tank I made before this, called the MBT-37 (and something that is BEGGING for an overhaul), is a modern-day MBT. In lore, I wanted that MBT to be a successor to this one. I tacked it with a lower designation, the MBT-31, to imply that it came earlier. Easy done, what's next?
Now, why does the tank exist, and what purpose does it serve? I basically just tacked the design doctrine of the M60 and applied it to this tank — They're fairly similar on looks and design, and I didn't really have anything unique to add onto the matter. Like the M60, it's just a medium tank that the Federation used quite alot. So far, so good.
The real problem came with giving it an actual name. The MBT-31 is a good, basic designation, but what usually a renowned vehicle gets a name, whether it be a nickname or an official namesake. And this is what got stuck hanging for months.
Tanks in real life have very lose name conventions compared to ships and aircraft. Aircraft are usually known by their designations (unless you're the European and designate them actual names), and ships are usually known by specific people or events (unless you're the British and commission them with random English words). Tanks, however, are just designated all sorts of different things up and down the board.
Americans designate tanks after soldiers, like how Navy ships are named after Sailors. France does something similar. British tanks are designated with English names, just like their Navy's ships. Germany names their tanks after "big cats" and other cats of prey. China and Russia just gives them alphanumerical designations. There's little consistency across the world as to tank naming conventions. This meant I have good freedom with what to name it, but also put alot of pressure on me to pick something that I can stick with for all future Federation tanks I make.
That's what influenced me to designate it the "MBT-31." It's basic, simple, and I'd think it'll be easy for other people to follow with vehicle designations if they're designated by their type; "MBT-," "IFV-," etc. I admit that it can be tacky, and I have Federation vehicles being modeled/written that don't follow that convention, but it's far better than the American example of naming everything "M1" and hoping nobody gets confused.
But I digress — The MBT-31 still needs a name. At first I tried to follow the German example. The vehicle before this (in-lore, the successor), the MBT-37, has the name "Blackfoot," in reference to the Black-footed Cat. I thought that it might be cool to carry on some sort of homage to German tank names (or maybe because I wanted to name a tank after a cat, so there'd be good potential to make it a catgirl-tankgirl, who's to say). But when I tried to apply this to the MBT-31, I had some issues. There's just not alot of good, wild/feral cats to name this after! I didn't want to name it after any pantherinae, as that'll make it too easy for people to compare it to Nazi Germany's "big cats." There isn't alot of good small cats to name it after, either. Call it the Lynx? That's already a helicopter. What about the wildcat? That's a Grumman cat. Caracal? That's a shitpost.
If not that, what else should I call it? I didn't want to name it after a person or an event, because either of those would require even more lore writing than I'm prepared for — I'd have to write a whole person or battle within the universe, and have them significant enough to have a tank named after them. I'd rather not do that unless I'm pressed against the wall. I could just stick with "MBT-31" and nothing else, but it feels almost obligatory, if this vehicle is meant to be a long-standing, reliable vehicle.
Eventually, I finally got an idea, surprisingly taking after an idea from my Blocksworld days. Back around 2018, I remember I was taking vehicle requests from other Blocksworld players to outfit the PMRDD's Military Police forces. I forgot who submitted it, but they submitted a police car that I accepted into the PMRDD, and I nicknamed it the "fresian," after the breed of horse.
Putting that mindset into a tank made almost too much sense. Armored doctrine can trace its linage back to horse cavalry, so it'll make sense for armored vehicles, carrying the thought that they are steeds to ride into battle, would be named after breeds of horses! It was there I got my "Eureka!" moment.
With that in mind I looked up horse breeds, and stumbled upon the Missouri Fox Trotter in my searches. I liked the name, but "Missouri" isn't a place in Project Λmikiro, so I just took that out. So, Foxtrotter it was!
Conclusion
That's the MBT-31's story on the developer's front. Although it's now in a presentable state for me to showcase as "finished," it's far from done. There's still many tiny improvements to be abound, and plenty other variants that I'll made based on the MBT-31. I can say for almost surefire assurance, you'll see this tank and its derivatives again soon.
Work Credits (for the avatar in the first pic): https://pastebin.com/bb5t3s9C
